calibre + iTunes = frustrating disaster

[Marcy]

Are people with large libraries getting this to work properly?

When I connect calibre to iTunes half the time all the books I had previously downloaded to iTunes are deleted. This is seriously frustrating. I have spent over a week adding and re-adding the same books to iTunes only to have them deleted.

I'm having a host of other problems, including an endless "Attribute Error" message that can't be gotten rid of and book titles that show up differently in iTunes than on calibre, so that calibre thinks they are different books.

I love reading on my iPad but I'm about to give up on it because managing my library is so frustrating. Right now after discovering the loss of the 500 books I uploaded last night, I feel like banging my head on my desk. But then I'd be bookless and have a headache too...



-Marcy

[itimpi]

I have no issues with books disappearing from iTunes, and I also have a large library on my iPad. It sounds as if you may have one of your iTunes settings wrong for what is required to work correctly with iTunes - have you checked carefully that they are as is specified for working with Calibre?

The greatest frustration is that it does not seem to be possible to control the ordering shown in the iBooks bookshelf from the Calibre end! All new books always appear at the top. However I suspect that is an iBooks issue rather than a Calibre one. IBooks could do with some more ordering options such as support for ordering by author or tags, or folder support. I guess these could come in a future release. I sometimes use Stanza instead on the iPad simply because then I can do over-the-air downloading either via the Calibre Content server or via my calibre2opds generated catalog.

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by itimpi

I have no issues with books disappearing from iTunes, and I also have a large library on my iPad. It sounds as if you may have one of your iTunes settings wrong for what is required to work correctly with iTunes - have you checked carefully that they are as is specified for working with Calibre?

The greatest frustration is that it does not seem to be possible to control the ordering shown in the iBooks bookshelf from the Calibre end! All new books always appear at the top. However I suspect that is an iBooks issue rather than a Calibre one. IBooks could do with some more ordering options such as support for ordering by author or tags, or folder support. I guess these could come in a future release. I sometimes use Stanza instead on the iPad simply because then I can do over-the-air downloading either via the Calibre Content server or via my calibre2opds generated catalog.

I only use the list view, so the ordering doesn't bother me at all. You can order by author, title or tags, in the list view. If not for that I couldn't use it at all! A big hassle is some books have tags hard-coded into the epubs, so I have to remove that info via Sigil, but at least you only have to do it once. I agree that folders would be superb.

I would use Stanza if I could get calibre to send to it directly, like it does to iBooks. I love how I can change the brightness on the fly.

I did follow all the directions in the calibre + ipad thread. I've started opening calibre only via the command line, so I can have the debug file handy.

-Marcy

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by Marcy;

A big hassle is some books have tags hard-coded into the epubs, so I have to remove that info via Sigil, but at least you only have to do it once.

I have never come across a case where I could not remove the tag in Calibre without resorting to Sigil.

I would use Stanza if I could get calibre to send to it directly, like it does to iBooks.

The reason I sometimes use Stanza is precisely because I do NOT need to download via iTunes. With Stanza I can access any book from my ebook library (around 10,000 titles) at any time and download it in a few seconds (either via WiFi or 3G) and because I use a calibre2opds generated catalog have a richly structured catalog. I have the library accessible via a web server so that Calibre does not need to be running at the time. This avoids the need to keep more than a few books on the device at a time. It is this over-the-air download capability that I wish iBooks had from a user supplied source rather than only via the apple ebook store.

I did follow all the directions in the calibre + ipad thread. I've started opening calibre only via the command line, so I can have the debug file handy.

I am sure that GRiker (the author of the iTunes/iPad Calibre integration will be more than happy to work with you to try and identify why your books are disappearing, and if it is a bug get it corrected.

[GRiker]

@Marcy:

In iTunes|Preferences|Advanced|Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to Library: checked or unchecked?

In iTunes|DEVICES|Summary|Options|Manually manage music and videos: checked or unchecked?

In iTunes|LIBRARY|Books, are the books that you've transferred from calibre listed there? Do they have a '!' in front of them?

After transferring books from calibre to iTunes, what steps are you taking to sync your iDevice with iTunes?

G

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by GRiker

@Marcy:

In iTunes|Preferences|Advanced|Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to Library: checked or unchecked?

Unchecked.

Originally Posted by GRiker

In iTunes|DEVICES|Summary|Options|Manually manage music and videos: checked or unchecked?

Unchecked. However FWIW in the music and movies tabs I have the Sync option unchecked as I don't want any music or movies on the iPad.

Originally Posted by GRiker

In iTunes|LIBRARY|Books, are the books that you've transferred from calibre listed there? Do they have a '!' in front of them?

Yes. That's how I check to make sure the books transferred and also if they have a subject hard-coded in the epub. Sometimes the title gets changed and I have to delete it and quit/restart calibre to get the book added with the correct title.

No ! in front of the books.

Originally Posted by GRiker

After transferring books from calibre to iTunes, what steps are you taking to sync your iDevice with iTunes?

Just plug in the iPad. Although I don't do this regularly. I'm trying to get everything successfully into iTunes first. I did sync last night because the book I wanted to read wasn't on the iPad.

Thanks for your help.

-Marcy

[GRiker]

@Marcy:
You're allowing iTunes to automatically sync your iDevice when it's plugged in, so let's take a closer look at your Sync settings.

With the iPad plugged in:

iTunes|DEVICES|Books|Sync Books: Checked or unchecked?
All books or Selected books: Which is selected?

G

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by GRiker

@Marcy:
You're allowing iTunes to automatically sync your iDevice when it's plugged in, so let's take a closer look at your Sync settings.

With the iPad plugged in:

iTunes|DEVICES|Books|Sync Books: Checked or unchecked?
All books or Selected books: Which is selected?

G

Selected books.

However everything is selected.

Hopefully this can be changed to All Books, since the list is long, cumbersome and scrolls painfully slow.

-Marcy

[GRiker]

Try changing to All Books, see if that makes a difference.

Also, confirm that iTunes|DEVICES|Books|Sync Books is checked.

G

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by GRiker

Try changing to All Books, see if that makes a difference.

Also, confirm that iTunes|DEVICES|Books|Sync Books is checked.

G

Sync books is checked. Changed to All Books. Although all books were being synced. I hadn't synced in a few days and added a ton of books and they were all sent to the iPad.

My problems are books being unilaterally deleted from iTunes.

-Marcy

[GRiker]

At what stage in your update process do the books disappear from iTunes?

[GRiker]

In calibre|Preferences|Plugins|Device Interface plugins|Apple device interface, do you have the driver disabled (grayed out)?

G

[Marcy]

At what stage in your update process do the books disappear from iTunes?

I don't know. Each time it's happened has been when I first open a calibre session, I connect to iTunes and then there is nothing there. I'm not sure if it is something with the end of the prior session or something about the new session.

I always open calibre via the command line now, so I'll have a debug file if it happens again.

In calibre|Preferences|Plugins|Device Interface plugins|Apple device interface, do you have the driver disabled (grayed out)?

Yes. That was in the directions in the calibre + iPad post.

-Marcy

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Marcy

Yes. That was in the directions in the calibre + iPad post.

I know from years of troubleshooting Navy computer systems that sometimes things need to be looked at a second time even though I knew that something was a certain way.

I have absolutely no iPad experience. I know you disabled the plugin according to the directions when you started. Did you go back this evening and verify that it is still turned off? On very rare occasions (I may have been hallucinating) I could have sworn an option that I had turned off went back to default after an upgrade.

Just a thought.

[GRiker]

@Marcy:
Here's what I would recommend at this point.

In addition to dwanthny's suggestions, I would suggest that you disable the automatic syncing when the iPad is connected so you can get a better sense of how and when your books are disappearing. If you control when the sync is done, you'll be able to inspect the conditions before and after the sync.

G